Real Love Stories Never Have Endings

These are my True Loves!
Here is my Banana all dolled up in her Valentines best for her "Tea" at school.


Here is a close up of her hair. I learned how to do these hearts from cutegirlshairstyles.com.
I practiced our Valentines hair on Sunday so we would be fast Monday morning but Bananas changed her mind. We went from 2 hearts to 1 heart so you would think it was easier. Not true. But I think it turned our cute!
Here is my Bear. She is so stinking cute with that candy covered face. We ran out of time to get her picture before school due to the extra time I had to spend on Bananas.....SO Bear got her picture done after snacking on Valentine treats. Speaking of treats remember how when we were little it was awesome to get a few conversation hearts in the envelope with your Valentine. Or getting one of those red suckers was a BIG deal. Now candy is the norm and people go WAY above that. CRAZY!
Miss Bear got 2 little hearts and curls. This look is so her. I was really happy with how it turned out. I am glad she left it in all day at school so I could still get a pic when we got home. I love my Ladybugs. I also love their Daddy. I love taking pictures of him with them. YOu know what the best part is? He is reading them a chapter book about Tinkerbell and fairies in Neverland. Isn't it great when daddies put aside their manly ways and connect with their ladies

I love them every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year of every decade of every century of every millenia......... this could go on Forever and I hope it will.

ps. I got the top freebie print form ficklepickle then I put it in photoshop and layered a black and white picture over it.

Never Judge Yourself by What Other People Think of You

Why is it that we are always so worried about what other people think of us. Is it because you know what you think about other people, and assume they are thinking the same kind of things about you?

When you're a teenager you are constantly worried about your image. It seems like back then those things were a lot more important to me. After I got married we were so poor. Cam only went to school and I worked at a Daycare....anyone who has worked in child care knows that is not a very big paycheck. I know I lost all sense of what was fashionable- I wore clothes that I already had. We couldn't afford anything new. Then I got pregnant. I bought 1 pair of maternity pants, 1 skirt and 2 maternity shirts. I wore them when I went out. The rest of the time I wore my scrubs and Cams t-shirts. I was staying home tending my niece at the time so this was okay. After giving birth my body changed so dramatically that I had to get all new clothes. We only bought a few things-again money was an issue. By the time I gave birth to Bear I had gone up another 2 sizes and none of my clothes fit right and I hated my body so badly that I just gave up. I wore whatever I could find and whatever was cheap. About a year and a half later I woke up and asked why I was doing this to myself. It was like I was punishing myself for keeping on the baby weight. I didn't feel cute. I didn't feel sexy. I felt blah. I couldn't stand to look in the mirror. All I could see was the negative about myself. I felt bad about my appearance and it showed. None of my clothes fit my body right. I had stopped making myself a priority and as a result my self esteem took a nosedive. We do that so much as moms. We spend oodles of time worrying about how our kids look and forget that we should take time for our own appearance too. We still didn't have much of a clothes budget but I changed my attitude. Instead of going for the cheap and fast I spent more time looking choosing better colors better fit ect. As I started to do this I felt a lot better about myself. Do I still hate my body-yes. But I have a better self image because I take more care in how I look. My main wardrobe is jeans and workT's but that will always be me....

So how does that relate. Well I don't think I worry as much about what other people think when I am taking the time to feel good about myself. If you find that inner harmony, what other people think matters less. Kinda like Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter books. To others she was an oddball but she was comfortable in her own skin. We need to all work to be comfortable with ourselves. Truth be told I am my own harshest critic. If someone else is thinking something about me chances are I have thought it about myself only 10x worse. I have found that when I find joy in the good things about myself, and try to always move forward and fix the things that I don't like, that I feel better about me and worry less about what others think.

I think this is long enough even though I have other thoughts about other aspects of this.
So speaking of judging people.... Please don't judge me on my poor grammar....it never was my strong point...I should fix that ;)
Trina

Advice from the young me.

I was looking in my High School Journal the other day. I have one journal that covers from 10th grade to when I got married. (Now you see why I am such a bad blogger...I couldn't even keep up a journal). I wasn't cool. I was never popular. I feel like I didn't have a very rough time as a teenager. Anything rough I went through was usually brought on by my own stupidity or lack of action. I made it through High School without any major screw ups. Just an average kid doing average things. That is me. I loved to spout off advice to others. Many a friend and room mate came to me with hard questions. I probably did a poor job of helping them....but I did find a list of advice I gave to myself on October 1oth 1999 making me 17 years old. I thought I would share it.
I called them my "Closing Remarks"

1-Never judge yourself by what other people think of you.
2-Always take time to relax.
3-Turn up songs you love and sing to them.
4-You're never too old for Disney Movies and Fairy Tales.
5-Dance in your bedroom whenever you get the chance.
6-You can't judge a book by its cover but, be prepared for people to judge you by your cover
7-Own at least 1 pink item.
8-Work to be comfortable with who you are but never stop learning and growing.
9-You always have someone to turn to. Someone always understands because someone has always been there before....not to mention Jesus who suffered everything so he TOTALLY understands.
10-God loves you no matter what you do.
The End

So I think that is pretty smart stuff for a 17 year old. I decided I am going to take this on as a blogging project. I don't promise much.... but I am feeling a little reflective lately. I thought this may be a good outlet. Over the next couple of weeks I thought I might take some time to explore this advice to myself and whether it does or does not apply to me today.
Much Love
Trina

Happy Valentines Day

Not a whole lot new to report in our neck of the woods. This winter has felt a lot like spring. Our girls really enjoyed riding their bikes yesterday. We were outside without our coats riding bikes in February....crazy stuff. But eventually winter will return.

Cam had his Birthday this week 29 years old. We are now approaching 30- can you believe it??
I certainly still feel like a 14 year old.

Lately I have been doing a lot of crafts for Valentines day. I have been so inspired by craft blogs with all their cute Valentineiness that I actually made stuff. Now I just have to start looking for St. Patrick's Day stuff to make.

I feel so boring.....but I think a lot of what you do as a mom is routine every day stuff. It is finding excitement and joy in the little things that really matters.

In closing I would like to express my love for you. If you read this blog chances are you have liked me a little at one point in my life....I want to say I LOVE YOU and wish you all the best!!
Trina

Christmas and Birthday( or lots more pictures of my kids...)

So I finally got my Christmas decorations put away a week ago and I thought I would finally do a post about some of our December activities. Enjoy!

These are not my kids but my kids did make them or decorate them I should say. We bought these ones pre-made from the store for a fun activity at Grandmas.
For Christmas we did a 25 day countdown. Each day of our advent had not only candy but also an activity for us to do. Here we are the first night playing Christmas Bingo.
This was Bananas EARLY birthday party. We had it at the start of December so we could make Christmas cookies!! First friend b-day party I ever let her have and we only invited 2 people but it was still crazy-but it was fun.
Yes this is my beautiful disaster. She tends to use the frosting and sprinkles like lotion...
Here is my detail oriented lady. She is precise and thoughtful in almost everything she does.
Aww My girl at her first ever school singing concert. She was the "star of the show" (I didn't say it her teacher did) But I did agree!
Candy Houses are always fun- and tasty!
Bear punched a hole in the roof and filled the whole thing with candy like a bank.
Oh here we go cooking again- this time gingerbread cookies for Santa- Daddy was our official taster.
Look no frosting lotion!! Success- oh wait I did the frosting they did the candy on these ones...
Trying to get a nice picture of our Christmas Eve Jammies....hmmm
Bananas sings for the Family
Bear cutes it up on the floor. Love this one of her!
After Christmas we spend a few days in St George. We went on a nice hike to Johnson's Arch. It was perfect for young kids- and our of shape people like me....not to strenuous but beautiful.
She was fearless running ahead and climbing high.
She preferred to keep her feet on the ground and play in the dirt.
Here we are in front of the arch. I just love the red rocks and the green brush. We also went past the arch and down on into a little alcove and played echo.
I love my girlies -
The snow storm that drove us home early from St. George was well worth it for the ladies.
Here she is my beautiful 6 year old girl. I can't believe how big she is getting.
Love the big puffy cheeks- and the cute headband Aunt Amanda made!
This one is for Grandpa!

IT HAS BEEN HOW LONG.....or what we have been doing since July.

Look at my cute Family!!

You know I am not a very good mommy blogger. I have to say I am the same way about writing in a journal. Really consistent for a while then....not so consistent. If you asked me as a teen what my biggest weakness is I would have said procrastination. Now if you asked me I think I would answer consistency. So here is a quick catch up of some of the stuff we have been up to for the last 4 months.

This little Bear had her 3rd birthday. I can not believe it. She is growing up so fast.

These are the cupcakes she requested. Chocolate with pink frosting.
We did get a little time in with nature. This was a beautiful hike around a lake. I can not remember where it was, and my hubby is unavailable to ask. I think it was by Snowbird. It was short and easy and pretty. It was also a rainy day. Thankfully the downpour let up and we got to go on the hike.

Here we all are. The intrepid explorers. Baby Bear is looking at the dead fish we found in the water. It was pretty much the highlight of the day for her. Funny girl!

Me and the Hubby. I am trying to get more pictures of us together. There are a lot of pictures of the girls, lots of him, a few of me but not many of us as a couple. I have taken it upon myself to fix that.

My Little Banana started Kindergarten which she loves. This is a pic of her first day finery.


Speaking of my Banana....this picture is SO her.

Here we are feeding ducks at First Dam. This baby with my hubby is my cute 1 year old niece. Though, because she belongs to the twin brother I think she looks like my girls. I just might have to keep her.....

Here we are at the Aggies football game. They even WON the game we went to!!

Awww hugging Big Blue

We also got to spend a weekend at Bear Lake. It was the perfect early fall day. It was warm enough to play in the water but cool enough that we did not bake.

I love my girls!!

Here my Bear shows off her budding fashion sense. She chose the whole look all by herself.
She was very proud of it as you can tell by the look on her face!

On to Halloween.......

Meet Witchy and Wicked our pumpkins. Yes my girls name their pumpkins and no it was not my idea. They come up with these things all on their own.

Here is my Spider Princess- Her costume gave me so much trouble.... I have got to learn to sew a strait line one of these days....... But I really like how it turned out. Trial and Error was my motto on this one but I think we got it right!

My little pumpkin. I love how her costume turned out!!

Had to add the one with my other cute niece (that I need to keep). She smiles and looks at the camera almost without fail....*sigh* one day perhaps my girls will learn that. Kidding!! I love the crazy looks I get on my girlies faces.

We tried out a recipe from the cookie cook book I got for my birthday. Treasure Chest Brownies. We had a lot of fun but I have got to find my cake decorating set (that is somewhere in the garage)....maybe I should just buy a new one or ask for one for Christmas.... Trying to do the decorative work with a baggie that was double pleated did not work so well. Next time I will make sure I buy the non pleated.....They sure were yummy. How can you go wrong with brownies, fudge covered graham crackers, m&m's, and chocolate frosting.

Last of all Bear FINALLY got to start a gymnastics class. She is so excited to get to go in the big room like sissy!

So that is a brief history of the last 4 month. Have a great rest of the Month. Let's see how long it takes until I update again..........

"How I Spent My Summer Vacation"

We went on vacation a couple of weeks ago to Heber here in Utah. While I packed the girls made this delicious cake. I thought it was so cute I had to take a picture. Anyways here are a few shots of how we spent our summer vacation.

Here is a shot of the girls and their cute cousin. We are at a church in Midway waiting for fireworks.
This is a trick that my girls have done since they could stand. Cam loves to let them stand on his hands and they love it too.

Cam and another cute niece. I caught then both playing with their phones.... I call this Cams smoldering look:)
I was a great fireworks show- especially when you consider how small the town was.
We took time while there to take family pictures. I did get a shot of them BOTH smiling and looking at the camera- you can tell their sisters cuz they both have the same fakeish smile...someday we will get a good posed picture!
Here we all are and looking at the camera too!! Here is a question. How do you convince your husband that when you are trying to take family pictures that he should take the hat off??? I haven't figured it out yet.
We also spent a day at Deer Creek playing and trying to use the canoe...but this was the only ride that happened because the water got really choppy so .....
The girls made use of it on the beach. They took a trip to Squid Island and were attacked by giant squids and found treasure. So I think it was worth hauling the canoe - it got a lot of good use!
They also delighted in attacking their only boy cousin. Thank goodness he was such a good sport! Don't worry I got in the water too. I wasn't a party pooper but it is my blog so I can choose to omit photos of me in a swimsuit.
We were in Heber so we had to go to the Dairy Keen. THIS is what it is like when we go to fast food places with our kids. I had an awesome turkey sandwich and you have to love their shakes and fries.
Plus the big train outside is lots of fun.
After Heber we spent a few days in WJ and went on some local outings. We finally made it to the Living Planet Aquarium. We had a lot of fun their. Here are a few highlights.

This is the penguin tank. We got to watch them get fed then jump into the water and swim.
I especially love the coral reef tank. It is so fascinating.
The girls love the jelly fish!
It was worth the trip for sure. Here I am with my girls on a giant frog.

We fit in a couple of other fun things as well. I saw Eclipse, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. We also went to Cams 10 year reunion. It was a nice vacation and I want to go back.....